JAIPUR/JODHPUR: In first-level checking of electronic voting machines ( EVM ), 46 ballot units and 63 control units have been found defective in Jaipur and Jodhpur. In Jaipur, 38 ballot units and 58 control units were rejected, while in Jodhpur five control units and seven ballot units were found defective, which according to the district administration have been returned for repairing to the Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited.Jaipur had received 6,735 ballot units and 5,695 control units of EVMs. Deputy district election officer, Sunil Bhati said that these EVMs had undergone first level checking at Lal Kothi situated office set up for the purpose.First-level checking of voter verifiable paper audit trail (VVPAT) will start in Jaipur from Wednesday. In the upcoming assembly elections, EVMs which are VVPATs compatible will be used by the election commission. Jodhpur district magistrate Ravi Kumar said on Monday that Jodhpur had received 3,170 ballot units and 3,141 control units for the upcoming election."All these units have been subjected to first-level checking by the technical experts in presence of the representatives of the registered political parties. Only 12 units have been found faulty which were returned for rectification," said Kumar adding that this figure comes to less than 1%.As per the directions of the Election Commission of India, this batch of EVMs had reached Jodhpur on June 10 and 11 this year which had been placed in a fully secured strong room of the Polytechnic College here.The prime objective of the checking was to win the trust of political parties regarding the accurate functioning of voting machines.Kumar said that keeping all the rumours about these machines away, people would have to understand that these machines are tamper-proof and votes once cast through the machine neither could be increased nor reduced.ADM Chhagan Lal Goyal further added that the testing of these machines had been carried out between June 18 and 28.It may be recalled that credibility of the EVMs is being questioned for past election in the state wherein the Congress had held the EVMs responsible for their loss in 2013 election in the state.According to a rough estimate, out of 76,700 ballot units and 63,992 control units which have been obtained by the state recently, 235 ballot units and 550 control units have been found faulty.All these machines are said to be advanced and have been sent to replace the old EVMs in the state for upcoming assembly election this year.But amid the reports of technical faults in the machines, the political parties are sceptic about the credibility of these machines. Keeping this suspicion about the machines in view, the Congress has already demanded the elections to be conducted through ballot papers instead of EVMs.

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